TWO prominent defeated Iranian presidential candidates said they would maintain their campaign against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election, which has sparked Iran’s worst unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Crowds of thousands swept into the streets of cities around the Middle East today to protest against Israel’s air assault on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.

A roadside bomb exploded today in a tunnel in the heart of the Iraqi capital as a US military convoy passed by, residents said. Two soldiers were said to be slightly injured.